One of the most
important contributions to the study of the Iceman is the book by
journalist Brenda Fowler, Iceman:
Uncovering the Life and Times of a Prehistoric Man Found in an Alpine
Glacier. Fowler's work brought the Iceman back to life
in a way that others could not. She spent seven years researching the
story and interviewing everyone involved with his discovery and
analysis. What resulted is an excellent example of a writer's ability
to track the facts (and politics) behind the news and make it
compelling.
James M. Deem
of The Mummy Tombs interviewed her about her work.
MT:
Can you tell readers a little about your early life?
Brenda Fowler: I
was born in Iowa and moved around a lot as a kid: Kansas, Minnesota,
Wisconsin. F
rom as far back as I remember I was interested in history
and ancient cultures and archaeology. I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder
books and used to make all my friends play "Little House on the
Prairie" during recess. I was also very interested in the
excavations by Louis and Mary Leakey in Kenya and Tanzania. In 5th
grade I saw a National Geographic movie about their discovery of
Zinjanthropus (now known as Australopithecus) and it just gave me
chills. After that my friends and I would dig in the ground during
recess and pretend that we were finding artifacts, but the most
interesting thing we ever found was a bit of barbed wire! In my senior
year of high school I was an exchange student in Belgium, where I
lived with a wonderful family and learned Flemish, which is a dialect
of Dutch. So few people speak it (fewer than about 10 million) that
it's kind of like a secret language. I attended the University of
Wisconsin in Madison and majored in journalism and international
relations. During my junior year I studied in Vienna, Austria, where I
learned German.
MT: Why
did you decide to become a writer?
Brenda Fowler:
Since I moved so much, I left behind a lot of friends to write. At one
point when I was a teenager I had more than 40 pen pals. Most of them
were in the United States, but I also had one in Milan, Italy, and she
remains a good friend to this day. I think writing all those letters
and learning about other peoples' lives gave me the idea to be a
writer or journalist. Strangely, I never really had any
"writing" teachers. But I've kept a diary since I was 13 or
14 years old.
MT:
What made you decide to write about Ötzi?
Brenda Fowler: When
the Iceman was discovered in 1991, I was working as a freelance
correspondent for The New York Times,
based in Vienna. I had
been writing about the break-up of the eastern bloc countries -- the
collapse of communism -- and had travelled to the (then) Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia (now Croatia and Serbia etc.) and Albania to do reporting.
I had never written a single article about science but I knew that I
had to report on this fascinating discovery that came out of the ice,
so I called the science editor of the New York Times and he told me to
write it. I didn't know much about prehistory at that time so I had to
learn a lot very quickly, but it was very exciting to talk with the
researchers. In 1992 I returned to the United States, to Chicago, to
do a master's program in general studies in humanities at the
University of Chicago. It was during that year that I decided to write
a book about the Iceman.
MT:
What did you enjoy more when you worked on the book: research or
writing?
Brenda Fowler: To
be honest, I had no idea how much work writing a book was going to be.
I was living in Chicago but I travelled back to Europe for several
months a year over the course of six years to do all my research and
reporting. I tried to meet everyone involved in the project, including
the people who discovered him and dug him out of the ice, and
ultimately conducted more than 100 interviews. When I got back to
Chicago I would transcribe all my recordings. In addition I was
talking to people here about the late Stone Age, the period in which
the Iceman lived, and reading books and papers about life in
prehistory. I guess I would have to say that at the beginning I really
enjoyed the research, but as the story began to take shape, I enjoyed
the writing more. There were too many roadblocks to even count: from
small things like trying to find the right way to move from one part
of the book to the next to the fact that Konrad Spindler, the lead
archaeologist on the project who at first was very helpful, decided
not to talk with me when he learned I was writing a book because he
thought it would compete with his book. Ultimately his resistance
became part of the story.
MT:
Why is Ötzi so important--to scientists and to regular people?
Brenda Fowler: Most
of the things archaeologists have from 5000 years ago are made of
stone, clay, bone or metal -- everything else (like bodies or food or
items made of wood or grass) has decayed. Ötzi is important because
he was preserved in snow and ice, which largely preserved his body,
equipment and clothing. Ötzi's skin had tattoos on it; his hair
contained evidence that he had been around the smelting process (the
melting down of raw metal to make things, like his copper axe) and his
stomach contained the remnants of his last meal, which was a kind of
granola-like cereal made of wheat. Before Ötzi, archeologists didn't
really know how people living in the mountains 5000 years ago were
dressed because none of it had survived. His clothing was made out of
deer skin (though his hat was made of bear fur) and he carried with
him a full set of equipment, including a bow and arrows (which he was
still in the process of making), a copper axe and a small container
that contained a burning ember.
MT:
What's your personal view about the exhibition of human remains?
Brenda Fowler: I
know that some people find it offensive that the iceman's body is on
display, but I am not troubled by it. The museum where the corpse is
on display has created a darkened and quiet area in which to view the
body, and I think that atmosphere gives people an opportunity to
reflect on his life and our connection to it. They might ultimately
have to make some kind of cast of the Iceman but I'm not sure it would
be as awe-inspiring as the original. People like to see the
"real" thing.
MT:
What's your take on the so-called "Curse of Otzi"?
Brenda Fowler: If
Ötzi were in the position to be sending any messages our way, I think
he would be sending blessing and not curses. So no, I don't believe in
the curse of the Iceman. So many people have been involved in the
project, it's not surprising that some of them would have died in the
15 years since he was discovered. After all, 15 years is about
one-sixth of a person's life expectancy, isn't it?
MT: Can
you comment on the finder's fee lawsuit filed by the Simons? Do you
think the Simons are wrong in asking for money at all?
Brenda Fowler: I
knew Helmut Simon, who died last year, and his wife Erika and they are
wonderful and not greedy people. I think that in looking for a
finder's fee for their discovery what they were really trying to do
was get some recognition that they were the ones who first found the
Iceman. The government of South Tyrol could have done a better job
acknowledging them in this way. A lot of people have profited from the
Iceman so I'm not surprised that the Simons would want to get their
share, too.
MT:
What's your next book project?
Brenda Fowler:
Right now I'm concentrating on raising my infant son, but I hope to be
working on another book in the near future.
MT:
Do you have any advice for aspiring mummy scientists or writers?
Brenda Fowler: My
advice for aspiring mummy scientists and/or writers: Go out and see
the world! Interview your friends and write down what they say -- or
make a video about it! Learn a foreign language or two so you can talk
to people in other places. And keep a journal! Just let your curiosity
take you where you want to go!
